Ivan Katalinic's 'tache

Tenuous link to a new striker: Premier League sides monitoring Hatayspor striker Aaron Boupendza (90min.com)

The football under Branfoot was atrocious. But there were genuine talents in the team like Le Tiss and Shearer. There was also passion from others even if it was all long ball. I don't really see either from our current crop. Danny & Prowsey are decent but no more. Armstrong is good too but not top class. Bertrand was great but is in decline & this is KWP's first regular starting role, where he's started well. Beyond that, there's not much. Ralph is doing his best but he's too fixated on one style and seemingly can't or won't adapt during games when things aren't going well. I'm beginning to wonder if that's the cause of the heads going down when things go wrong. The players can see if something's not working but also know we will do nothing to change it up, to try to make a difference. They look knackered and stale all of a sudden and don't have the fighting spirit Branfoot's squad had to at least battle. Branfoot also doesn't have the real embarrassment of 2 9-0 defeats on his record. Ralph doesn't seem to have the tactical or motivational nous to help them out either. Very worrying. We may stay up this season but not next if this continues.

Beaten by a side who showed more urgency & wanted it more. Not acceptable. Not sure if it's Ralph, the players or both. Wouldn't be surprised if the😸same happened next week too.

I just don't get resting our only likely sources of goals - Ings and Minamino - for the most winnable game we have out of Chelsea, Leeds and Everton. Can't work out whether it's totally underestimating Leeds or overestimating the ability of their replacements. Everyone knows our game plan is to get in front and hope to hang on so to not even try and get in front is bizarre. Bednarek is not a right back and not even a competent stand-in one either. We have 4 fit centre backs why not be pragmatic and go to 3 at the back and play with wing backs at least until KWP is fit again. There's no resilience in the side to cope with bad decisions or conceding a goal and it seems to be a cumulative effect from several poor seasons save for the start of the first lockdown. Even in the Redknapp relegation season at least there was some spirit in the side but there's nothing in this lot. If were to slip into the relegation places, I see no evidence there is enough fight to try to get out of it. A thoroughly depressing effort. Again...

I think that's it. I'd love to know what Ralph could do with genuine backing. 5 permanent signings in 5 windows is not backing (I know why!) but, if we did dispense with him, that question would always linger for me. The plan to bring in players from the academy still works if we were one day able to bolster the squad with proper signings rather than just those with potential.

Bang on the money. He's a great player but captain by default. One big consequence of our plan to buy young, promising, saleable players is unless they're already natural leaders, it leads to a dirth of that kind of attribute in the squad. That's when you look to the experience in the squad & I don't see the requisite strength of character in Bertrand, Romeu or even McCarthy to get us going again. Until its addressed, we will continue to cough up defeats from winnable positions. The captain doesn't have to be the best player on the park but he does need to be the drive and inspiration. How many other teams need their manager cajoling and barking out instructions like a madman to try to be effective?

A fine riposte from Saints to the last two games. If we are prioritising the Cup over the league, then it showed. But it also showed we have a very good first XI and a couple of decent options from the bench too when all are fit. We still have Theo and Diallo (who looks extremely promising) plus the on loan Minamino to add back in and things start to look a bit more rosy. Salisu showed some real promise and it was only to be expected that there were moments of rustiness and adjustment to the pace of the English game. I never thought I'd see Fraser Forster attempting to play as a sweeper keeper but clearly some good work has been done on dragging him away from his line. Same again on Sunday chaps (and that includes retaining Fraser in goal!).

Thank goodness we don't have previous for doing this...

Or maybe Kayne Ramsay has got a chance?

Would we not also be leaving ourselves a bit short up front too then, particularly with Theo as additional cover injured?

Really? We've worked our way down to West Ham's reserve full backs?

When asked if he regrets letting Vokins go so soon, Hasenhuttl told HampshireLive: "No, this is not a problem. "We are not so bad in that position as we have Will Ferry as an alternative on the bench if we need to. “It looks like Jannik [Vestergaard] and [Mohammed] Salisu are coming back as soon as one week or two weeks. This is important as we will then have more options in the back four and Kyle-Walker Peters' is not a big injury. He added: "It is getting better defensively and we have more alternatives." It's ok, Will Ferry can cover full-back! That didn't take long to cover off another transfer window fail...

Never too late to bring him home... 😁

The Maitland-Niles central midfield thing is a bit weird. He's got into the England set-up as a wing-back. Southgate seems to want him to cover left wing-back. Why would he want to go to West Brom, assist with a probable relegation and then not go to the Euros as he's not been played in the position England seem to want to use him? Of course, if he backs himself to keep WBA up with a string of stellar midfield displays then fair enough but, even then, there's no guarantee England will want to use him there and he may get left out anyway because he's not playing where Southgate thinks he works best in his system. Not sure if it's his own ego or the direction he's been pointed at by his agents but it seems a little odd. Oh well, on to the next very last minute target...

I can see the logic of AMN going to West Brom. He'll be aiming to not play very much, get a surprise move to German football and end up at Bayern as one of the best talents in Europe like Serge Gnabry.

Now that's out of the blue but a very positive deal if it happens!! Proper competition up top for Danny & Che...

Gilmour and Maitland-Niles would make for a decent deadline day...

Seems like Leicester are going for Chalobah at Watford, among others, rather than Maitland-Niles according to John Percy earlier.

Still raging...!

Valery up against Rashford & a kid making his Premier League debut against Bruno Fernandes - what's not to like?!

I genuinely don't see the point in football when the game is no longer being decided inside the ground. Might as well ask Mike Dean what he'd like the score to be before the game & just go with that.

James Shea?

The local paper, the Evening Standard, suggest we're at the front of the queue: Southampton join race for Arsenal midfielder Ainsley Maitland-Niles | Evening Standard

Unless KWP is a bit more injured than Ralph is letting on? Surely Maitland-Niles would be a better bet at right back than Valery?

Let's hope we have something near completion then or a very good left back coming through the U18s, if we can't get someone in... Maybe Maitland-Niles is on our radar, if Brandon Williams isn't available, although Arsenal might see us as being too close to them in the table to loan someone out to?